Columbus Blue Jackets on field woes compounded by managerial moves; don't mess with KHL manager Andrei Nazarov; and NHL drug claims are among the five things we learned in hockey this week:

Rough days in Columbus

Let's deal with the most obvious part of this story first. Losing 9-2 to Philadelphia was awful for the Blue Jackets. However, in the end, it wasn't the most interesting thing that happened to the team this week. It was bad, yes, but at least not confusing. Short Jeff Carter up front, with no discernible goaltending, and a record (2-11-1) that puts them on pace to barely scrape past 30 points this season, Columbus has looked bad from the start. That's not really different from many other years, apart from perhaps 2009 when they managed to make the playoffs. So, again, Saturday's result was pretty straight-forward on the surface.The interesting part of the story is actually off-ice, and we'll get to that in a minute.

First, in case you missed it, here are the Flyers making it all look very sad indeed on Saturday:

Oh. Dear. There are shaking heads all over the hockey world, as everyone wonders what will become of this squad. How will anyone ever want to keep buying tickets to this if it continues much longer? The 'joke' about finishing last is always that at least you'll get the first round draft pick. And sure, in that sense, there's a light at the end of the tunnel for the Blue Jackets. But, then again, so what? The management in Columbus often has the chance to draft high, and yet somehow they never get far.

Also perhaps worth questioning is Rick Nash's patience. The word is that he's not looking to leave, and maybe knowing Carter will be back is enough to keep him going. But surely at some point such a consistent high-scorer like him will want to move on. Is there a line one crosses from stoicism to delusion? I'm not sure. We may find out.

However, at least another disappointing season from a perpetually beleaguered team is not a surprise. What has been a surprise, if not just downright strange, is how Columbus relates to the real major story of the week: that former Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock was hired by the divisional rival St. Louis Blues.

New days in Missouri

A recap: After a first-round exit (a sweep) in 2009 to the Canucks, the Blues started the 2010 season a little off the mark. So they fired then-coach Andy Murray in early 2010, and Davis Payne took over. They finished 4th in their division, ahead of – yep – the Blue Jackets. Same again last year. This season, the Blues were off to roughly a .500 start, which has them at 14th in the West, but not necessarily out of the running altogether. And yet, the team announced Monday they'd fired Payne and hired Hitchcock.

What that makes this story so juicy is that Hitchcock is still under contract with the Blue Jackets until the end of the season. They officially relieved him of his coaching position in 2010 (around the same time the Blues got rid of Murray), but he was still kicking around, sometimes showing up to games. Which was also odd.

On Saturday during Hockey Night in Canada, there was some speculation that Hitchcock might actually return to the Blue Jackets as head coach. Why else would he be coming to games, the panel rationally asked. Hitchcock's continued presence around the Blue Jackets annoyed Mike Milbury, and he noted that it could be a disruption.

Well, Hitchcock will still be showing up at Columbus games, only now instead of being in the crowd, he'll be standing behind the opposing bench.

Why St. Louis made this move is not totally baffling – they need a winning season, and it was, after all, Hitchcock who managed to pick Columbus up and lift them to their only franchise playoff appearance. So, he might be exactly the right fit. But what was Hitchcock doing at those Blue Jackets games? What happened there? I'm open to interpretation on how and why this came about, and where it all may lead.

We should all start watching the KHL

If you haven't seen this video of Vityaz Chekhov coach Andrei Nazarov going after opposing fans with a stick, you should:

He was handed a 2-game suspension for that. However, the fighting coach is only emulating his team, which has a reputation for starting the odd donnybrook:

High times in the NHL?

We learned this week that the NHL might not be as clean as it often claims to be. Former NHL tough guy (and now deputy leader of Canada's federal Green Party. Yes, seriously. And no, he was not elected during the election in May.), Georges Laraque, has said in a new book that he knows of fellow players who were using steroids.

Interestingly, given the depressing summer and cringing beginning the league had image-wise, Laraque points again to the game's enforcers as users.

According to TSN, Laraque claims in his book that tough guys would begin to use steroids before coming to the NHL in order to gain weight, and would also use "substances like Ephedrine so they would be desensitized before a fight." That's not really what the league needs at the moment.

It will be interesting to see whether this catches on in the same way it did with baseball in the U.S. in 2005, when it emerged that many of MLB's top players were using performance-enhancing drugs, and they all trotted down to D.C. to have a chat about it, which in retrospect from this side of the economic divide, looks almost quaint.

As bizarre as it may sound, there is actually a potential political aside to all of this. There is an outside chance that Green Party leader (and newly-elected MP) Elizabeth May might bend enough ears around Ottawa for the issue to be picked up by one of the official parties and bandied about with great concern by politicians wondering what kind of example is being made for our children. It's happened before. After Zdeno Chara flattened Max Pacioretty in last year's playoffs, Quebec's Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions directed the province's ministry of Public Security to investigate the matter, and federal Liberal MP Denis Coderre fumed about it publicly. So, anything is possible.

Crosby update: No change

Even though Crosby's brain is still making national headlines in Canada – with the doctor who's getting him back on track running as the cover story for Maclean's magazine – we're still no closer to knowing when Sid will return. That being said, he's been practising with contact for a while now, and there was some chatter Monday that he could make his comeback on Friday, when the Pens play Dallas, who are currently right behind Pittsburgh at second place overall in the league. The Pens, however, have been doing just fine without him, so does it even really matter?

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